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Wednesday, October 11, 2006

1492

1492. Granada falls and the Reconquista ends, Nebrija's Grammatica sees the light of day, and Columbus sails the ocean blue. I believe they are all ingredients that significantly shape the history that unfolds from the Columbean voyages. And for centuries.

I had got to thinking about Columbus by way of a post on Circomper about the term "culture". It seems there are two notions of "culture" at work in that post that aren't clearly distinguished and that "culture" in it's anthropological/social scientific sense finds its genesis earlier than the 18 and 19 centuries. I think the very outlines of modernity's idea of "culture" starts with the colonial writings of folks like Bartolome de las Casass (Historia de Las Indias) and Bernardino de Sahagun (Cosas de Nueva Espana). Perhaps I'm wrong about that. But so it seems to me.